Kendama - A Toy Both Children & Adults Enjoy (Review/Giveaway)

"A traditional Japanese toy which consists of a wooden, hammer-like object with a ball connected to it by a string. In English, kendama may be referred to as ring and pin and bears similarities to the classic cup-and-ball game, known in the Latin American world as balero. The principle of these toys is the same: catching one object with another, where both are joined by a string."

"To play with a kendama, one grips the toy and using one hand only, jerks the ball so that it may be caught in one of the cups or impaled on the spike. More advanced tricks are sequential balances, juggles, and catches. There are eleven prescribed moves on the kendama trick list for achieving a kyu ranking and several more for a dan ranking. A 1-kyu rating, for example, is attained by simply catching the ball in the largest cup. A book published by the Japan Kendama Association lists 101 different tricks for the toy and there are supposedly tens of thousands of trick variations. Different stances and grips are required to perform different tricks."

I first learned about the kendama when I came across it on Kendamasite.com's website. The fact that it was a toy that could help build hand-eye coordination caught my interest.

When this arrived in our mailbox, I was pretty excited to give it to my son. However, something happened once it was in my hand; I couldn't resist the challenge of trying to get the ball into one of the cups. My son, of course, was itching to play with it. At that precise moment, my husband walked in. As he watched me playing with the kendama, he became interested and asked me if he could give it a try. So I handed it over to him, meanwhile, my son is looking at us with a look of exasperation on his face. Of course, he was wondering when he was going to get to play with his toy. My five-year-old was also in line waiting for his turn.

This is a toy that is enjoyed both by children and adults alike. I will warn you, you'll want to make sure no one is standing too close to someone playing with a kendama so as they don't get hit by it. You also don't want to be too close to any walls or furniture when playing with it.

Watch this video of some children playing with a kendama, then visit kendamasite.com to learn more about this fun toy. You can also do a search for "kendama" on youtube.com to see some awesome kendama players.

Kendamasite.com is generously offering one of my readers a chance to win a kendama of their very own. To enter this giveaway, you must be a follower of this blog either through NetworkedBlogs or Google Friend Connect. (All other entries will be disqualified.)

Use Rafflecopter below to enter. Make sure to leave your contact information.

6 comments:

I would LOVE to win this for my children :) I am Japanese and raised by my mom and grandma who were both born and raised in Japan - my kiddos would LOVE it :)Carlie K. from www.soyoucallyourselfahomeschooler.comsoyoucallyourselfahomeschooler (at) gmail (dot) com

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